Desdemona Despair

Blogging the End of the World™

Kenya drought ‘passed emergency levels months ago’

As one devastating drought follows another, the future is bleak for millions in east Africa. John Vidal reports from Moyale, Kenya By John Vidal We met Isaac and Abdi, Alima and Muslima last week in the bone-dry, stony land close to the Ethiopia-Kenya border. They were with five nomad families who have watched all their […]

Political infighting threatens survival of the bluefin tuna

By Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent The last chance to save one of the most majestic fish in the sea is on the verge of collapse because of political jockeying in Europe. A proposal to ban the sale of bluefin tuna is being fiercely opposed by Malta, the capital of the lucrative global business, and […]

Los Angeles wildfire drives wildlife to backyards

By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – For residents of the scenic foothill communities above Los Angeles, chance encounters with deer, coyote and other wildlife are commonplace. The occasional bear or mountain lion will even wander into a backyard. They’re about to become more visible. As the threat to humans from the 10-day-old Station Fire […]

Herring season canceled in San Francisco Bay

By Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writer State wildlife regulators canceled the San Francisco Bay herring fishing season for the first time Thursday, hoping to rebuild a population that has plunged dangerously low. The 4-0 vote by the state Fish and Game Commission follows a long decline in bay herring. The drop is blamed on environmental […]

Drought withers Iraqi farms, food supplies

by Deborah Amos | Listen to the Story [4 min 38 sec] Iraq has one of the largest oil reserves in the world, but it’s running out of another valuable commodity: water. Iraq’s ancient name, Mesopotamia, means the land between two rivers: the Tigris and the Euphrates, which flow into Iraq from Turkey and Syria. […]

Fall colors fade in U.S. West as aspen trees die

  By Laura Zuckerman SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) – The American West is losing its autumn colors as global warming begins to bite and there is far more at stake than iconic scenery. Aspen, the white-barked trees with golden leaves that gave their name to the famed Colorado ski resort, have been dying off across the […]

Graph of the Day: 2000-Year Reconstruction of Arctic Temperatures

Fig. 3. (A and B) Composite of 23 high-resolution proxy climate records from the Arctic. Values are 10-year means standardized relative to the reference period of 980 to 1800. (A) Records subdivided by source of proxy information: trees, ice, and lakes, with the running count of records. (B) Records subdivided by those that extend 2000 […]

Record-low sockeye salmon return expected for the Fraser River

By RICHARD J. DALTON JR., Vancouver Sun VANCOUVER — Sockeye salmon are expected to return to the Fraser River in record-low numbers this season due to an unknown threat in the ocean, experts say. When the last of the sockeye return late this month, 1.37 million are expected to have made the three-month journey — […]

Pacific bigeye tuna populations threatened by overfishing

Large-scale fishing imperils staple of sushi bars the world over, group says BANGKOK, Thailand – Environmentalists want tougher restrictions on the industrial-scale fishing of bigeye tuna in the Pacific Ocean after new research showed current measures are failing and will do little to sustain stocks of a fish that is popular in sushi bars the […]

Climate change and overfishing are altering the Atlantic ocean ecosystem

By CLARKE CANFIELD, Associated Press Writer PORTLAND, Maine – The basic makeup of the ocean waters off the Northeast and the mid-Atlantic region has fundamentally changed in the past 40 years because of climate change, commercial fishing pressures and growing coastal populations, according to a new report. The 2009 Ecosystem Status Report says fish populations […]

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